Swiss court wipes slate clean on 655-year-old debt farmers paid to Catholic Church
Drachma and Euro currency are displayed June 13, 2012 in Athens, Greece.
Photographer: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images
Copyright Getty Images
Posted: 01/09/2013
-
By: Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) - A Swiss court has wiped out an annual debt that farmers have had to pay the Catholic Church to atone for a crime 655 years ago.
Swiss public broadcaster RTS says a court in the northeastern canton (state) of Glarus ruled that the current farm owner no longer has to pay 70 Swiss francs ($76) each year because Swiss mortgage reforms in the mid-19th century made the practice invalid.
The broadcaster reported Tuesday the court sided with the landowner in a dispute with the church after he refused to make the annual payment for oil and candles.
The payments had been a tradition since 1357, when a man named Konrad Mueller killed a man named Heinrich Stucki. To atone, Mueller promised to always pay to keep an eternal lamp lit.
Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
PRINT
More Say What?
-
Top 9 'Dancing With The Stars' wipeouts
We have all been mesmerized by the quick-step and awestruck by the cha-cha on "Dancing With the Stars," but what happens when the stars step too quick and land on their cha-cha's instead?
-
Drug study eyes marijuana legalization
-
Quiz: Match txt versions of famous lines
-
Spelling in the age of texting
-
Time to say 'Ta-ta' to the bra?
-
Televangelist under fire over comments
-
FBI: Man's abortion pill trick is murder
